Italian Nationalities Overview

Overview

This lecture covers how to use Italian nationalities as adjectives and nouns, emphasizing grammar rules and providing key examples and vocabulary.

Each country and continent has an adjective in Italian to describe people or things from that place.
Nationality adjectives can also act as nouns to refer to people.
In Italian, nationalities are capitalized when used as nouns, but not as adjectives.
Example: "Non sono italiano." (I'm not Italian—adjective); "Conosco una Italiana." (I know an Italian woman—noun).

Nationality adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.
Many nationalities ending in -ese (like "cinese," "giapponese") are the same for masculine and feminine.
Most other nationality adjectives have masculine (-o) and feminine (-a) forms.

Africano/a (African), Albanese (Albanian), Americano/a (American), Asiatico/a (Asian)
Australiano/a (Australian), Austriaco/a (Austrian), Belga (Belgian), Brasiliano/a (Brazilian)
Canadese (Canadian), Cinese (Chinese), Olandese (Dutch), Egiziano/a (Egyptian)
Inglese (English), Europeo/a (European), Francese (French), Tedesco/a (German)
Greco/a (Greek), Indiano/a (Indian), Irlandese (Irish), Italiano/a (Italian)
Giapponese (Japanese), Coreano/a (Korean), Messicano/a (Mexican), Neozelandese (New Zealander)
Polacco/a (Polish), Portoghese (Portuguese), Russo/a (Russian), Spagnolo/a (Spanish)
Svizzero/a (Swiss), Turco/a (Turkish), Ucraino/a (Ukrainian)

Nazionalità — nationality; the term for someone's country or continental origin.
Aggettivo — adjective; modifies a noun and must agree in gender/number.
Sostantivo — noun; can refer to a person from a specific country or continent.
-ese adjectives — nationality adjectives that do not change for gender.

Practice matching nationalities to their countries and adjusting for gender and number.
Review related lessons: adjectives, nouns and gender, and the verb "essere."
Learn and memorize the list of nationalities most relevant to your studies.